On Monday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Baghdad security spokesperson Major General Qassim Atta said at a press conference that Abdullah Azzam Saleh Misfar al-Qahtani "participated in the planning of a terrorist act in South Africa during the World Cup".

He was arrested in Iraq two weeks ago and was reportedly a Saudi military official.

The news broke on the day South Africa's security forces put on a show of readiness in Sandton, north of Johannesburg.

No further information was available on the report and the Local Organising Committee referred all queries to Naidoo.

AFP wrote that the 30-year-old Saudi national had been in contact with an al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as part of his planning for the attack.